List of Stanley Cup Finals broadcasters
The following is a list of the television and radio networks/stations (American, Canadian and French Canadian) and announcers that have broadcast Stanley Cup Finals series over the years. American Television National Television 2010S NOTES * 2014 – In the United States, NBC televised Games 1 and 2, NBCSN broadcast games 3 and 4, while NBC televised the remaining games. NBC Sports originally planned to repeat its coverage pattern from the last few seasons: NBCSN would televise game 2 and 3, while NBC would broadcast Game 1, and then games 4-7. After the league scheduled Game 2 on the day of the 2014 Belmont Stakes, coverage of games two and four were switched so NBC's telecast of the horse race would serve as lead-in programming to Game 2. * NBC and NBCSN will televise the Stanley Cup Finals through 2021. 2000S NOTES * As part of NBC's coverage, Pierre McGuire, while positioned as a rinkside reporter, provides color commentary from his vantage point - known as Inside the Glass. * 2005 - Had the season not been canceled, ESPN would have televised the Games 1 and 2 and NBC Games 3-7. Mike Emrick, John Davidson, and Pierre McGuire would have called the game for both networks. While Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, and Heather Cox would have been a studio for ESPN2 and Bob Costas, Mike Milbury, and Keith Jones would have do the same for NBC. 1990S Notes * From 1995–1999, Fox split coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals with ESPN. Game 1 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals was the first Finals game shown on network television since 1980 and the first in prime time since 1973. Games 1, 5, and 7 were usually scheduled to be televised on Fox; Games 2, 3, 4, and 6 by ESPN. However, from 1995 to 1998, the Finals were all 4 game sweeps; 1999 ended in 6 games. The consequence was that – except for 1995, when Fox did televise Game 4 - the decisive game was never on network television. Perhaps in recognition of this, Games 3–7 were always televised by ABC in the succeeding broadcast agreement between the NHL and ABC Sports. 1980s Notes * 1989 - SportsChannel's coverage aired on PRISM in the Philadelphia area. SportsChannel Philadelphia did not launch until January 1990. Both SportsChannel and PRISM were owned by Rainbow Media. * 1980 - Games 1-5 on Hughes used CBC's feed. For CBS' coverage of Game 6 (which served as a special edition of the CBS Sports Spectacular anthology series), Dan Kelly and Lou Nanne were in the booth, and Tim Ryan as ice level reporter. This would be the last time that a National Hockey League game would be broadcast on American network television for 10 years (until the 1990 NHL All-Star Game aired on NBC), and the Stanley Cup Finals game on broadcast-network television until 1995. 1970S NOTES * In 1979, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Since the Finals ended in 5 games, the contract was void. * Starting in the 1978 playoffs, the NHL Network began simulcasting many games with Hockey Night in Canada. This happened in Game 7 of the quarter-final series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders. The entire 1979 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers was simulcast as well. * The 1976 Stanley Cup Finals on the NHL Network marked the first time that the NHL's championship series was nationally televised in its entirety in the United States. ** Stan Mikita, Garry Unger, Chico Resch, and Curt Bennett each did one game as analyst. All were active players at the time. * 1971 - CBS was not scheduled to broadcast Game 7, but showed the prime time contest after thousands of viewers called the network asking that it be broadcast. The game was blacked out in Chicago, as well as in much of the Midwest, in deference to theater TV. * In 1970, Pat Summerall and then-Boston Bruins' TV announcer Don Earle did a short post-game segment from inside the team's dressing room at the end of CBS' coverage of the fourth (and what turned out to be the final game) of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals. WSBK-38, which was the team's the Bruins' TV flagship then, simulcast the CBS coverage and did a longer post-game locker-room segment after CBS' coverage ended. Canadian Television National Television 2010s Notes * Beginning in 2010, Glenn Healy was positioned between the team benches and provided color commentary in addition to reporting. * From 2010 to 2014, the Hockey Night in Canada i-Desk was contributed by Elliotte Friedman, Andi Petrillo, Jeff Marek and Scott Morrison. * 2014 was the last year under the league's current Canadian TV contracts with CBC (English broadcasts of the Finals) and the cable network TSN (English broadcasts), and RDS (French broadcasts). The NHL's twelve-year contract with Rogers Communications would then take effect beginning next season, with English-language national coverage of the Finals being sub-licensed to CBC, and French-language telecasts being sub-licensed to TVA Sports. TSN will only be showing regional games for Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg starting the fall of 2014 ** The Stanley Cup Finals will be televised by CBC through 2018. 2000S Notes * 1997 - Ron MacLean did not host Games 2 and 3 as he was attending the funeral of Don Cherry's wife, Rose. 1980s Notes * Game 4 (May 24) of the 1988 Stanley Cup Finals is well known for fog that interfered with the game and a power outage that caused its cancellation before a face-off. The game ended with the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins tied at 3–3. CBC televised the first Game 4 as well as the "official" fourth game (on May 26), which Oilers won 6–3. * Even though CTV decided to pull the plug on their two-year-old (lasting from 1984–85 through 1985–86) NHL broadcasting venture with the Carling O'Keefe brewing company (citing low ratings and an inability to clear other programming for both regular season and playoff telecasts), Carling O'Keefe retained their rights. This soon lead to them syndicating 1987 and 1988 playoff telecasts on a chain of channels that would one day become the Global Television Network. The Global Television Network broadcasts were aired under the names Stanley Cup '87 and Stanley Cup '88, before a merger between Carling O'Keefe and Molson (the presenters of Hockey Night in Canada on CBC) put an end to the competition. ** Contrary to the broadcasts from the previous CTV deal (in which they split the Stanley Cup Finals coverage with CBC), the Canwest-Global telecasts were network exclusive, except for Game 7 of the 1987 Finals. Therefore, both CBC and Canwest-Globa'''l televised the Game 7 while using separate production facilities and separate on-air talent. '''Bob Cole and Harry Neale called the game on CBC, while Dan Kelly '''and '''John Davidson '''called the game on '''Canwest-'Global'. 1970S